Louis d'Affry

Portrait of Louis d'Affry in the Gallery of the Famous Swiss of Modern Times, 1882

Louis Auguste Philippe Frédéric François, 2ème Comte d'Affry (born February 8, 1743 in Freiburg im Üechtland ; † June 26, 1810 ibid) was the first Landammann of Switzerland (1803), Maréchal de camp in French service and mayor of the city of Freiburg in Switzerland.

Affry was born in Friborg, Switzerland, as the son of Count Louis Augustin d'Affry from a Friborg patrician family. Since his father was in the French military service, he trained at the Collège Louis-le-Grand in Paris. At a young age he became an ensign in the General Company of the Royal Swiss Guard in Paris. After several successful war missions, Affry rose to become captain in his father's company in 1766 . In 1780 he became Brigadier des armes du roi , in 1784 Maréchal de Camp and Commander of the Order of the Ordre royal et militaire de Saint-Louis . In 1791/92 he was in command of the French troops in the Haut-Rhin department, but left France after the Tuileries storm with his father after the Swiss troops were dismissed from the French service. From 1765 he headed the “Council of Sixty”, the assembly of the ruling bourgeois families in the city of Freiburg. When Napoleon at the gates of Freiburg i. Üe. stood, d'Affry saved the troops a pointless fight. After the city surrendered on March 2, 1798, the Old Confederation ended and Freiburg became part of the Helvetic Republic . At the Helvetian Consulta in Paris in 1803, d'Affry acted as a mediator between the divided parties. When the mediation act came into force, he became first Landammann of Switzerland and mayor of Freiburg i. Üe. In the years 1804-1810 he defended Swiss neutrality and received numerous powers of attorney from Napoleon in the Wars of Liberation (1809). Louis d'Affry had a decisive influence on the alliance between Switzerland and France during the Napoleonic campaigns in Europe and was considered one of the few landammans in Switzerland with an international stature.

literature

• Alain-Jacques Czouz-Tornare: Affry, Ludwig von. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Gisi:  Affry, Ludwig August Philipp Graf d ' . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, p. 135 f.
• Georges Andrey, Alain-Jacques Czouz-Tornare. The first Landammann in Switzerland: Louis d'Affry 1743–1810. Hier + Jetzt, Baden 2012, ISBN 978-3-03919-225-0 .

Web links

• Publications by and about Louis d'Affry in the Helveticat catalog of the Swiss National Library
• Website of the Résidence d'Affry in Freiburg with pictures by Louis d'Affry (French)